On April 3, 2002, a
story was published in the San Diego Union-Tribune that stated:
The Justice Department Office of Legal
Counsel has decided that states and localities, as "sovereign
entities," have the "inherent authority" to enforce
immigration laws, according to Justice sources. This
has unleashed the following reaction.............

...Trust between undocumented
immigrants and local authorities is tenuous as is. It will be
nonexistent if local police forces undertake to do the Border
Patrol's job. -- That rape victim who happens to be without documents
won't report the crime. That home invasion will become routine
as assailants get wise to the fact that all will go unreported.
[Pimentel continually sides with reconquistas. E-mail]

...People in the country illegally
would be forced further underground. Crime victims and witnesses
without green cards would not cooperate with police or courts,
if doing so meant risking deportation. Fueled by a heightened
paranoia, some immigrants would pull their children out of school,
avoid public hospitals and any other services that could bring
them to the attention of local authorities. The predictable result
would be a community- wide deterioration of public health and
safety. [Newsday is a
very liberal paper. They push open borders and the protection
of illegal aliens and day laborer pests who are flocking to New
York.]

The federal government's idea
to turn street cops into immigration agents makes no sense because
it asks them to make the unrealistic leap from criminal to civil
investigators, a Phoenix immigration law expert said. -- David
Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration
Reform, the country's largest restrictionist group, said outnumbered
INS agents should take all the help they can get. -- "It
makes common and fiscal sense," Ray said.

A proposal to encourage state
and local police to help enforce immigration laws is drawing
fire from advocates for immigrants but strong backing from some
people in law enforcement. -- After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
the federal government is considering issuing a legal opinion
that would allow localities to provide backup for the U.S. Immigration
and Naturalization Service. -- Immigration appears to be the
only area that local police are not allowed to enforce, said
Jim Pasco, executive director of the 300,000-member Fraternal
Order of Police. "This is more a testimonial to political
correctness than it is to cooperative law enforcement,"
Pasco said.

It's plain and simple. Local
police are not looking to become immigration officials. -- The
reaction came quite naturally from Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave
Snowden, as well Newport Beach Police Chief Bob McDonell, following
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's statements Wednesday that he would
favor a change in policy to let local police make arrests based
solely on immigration violation. -- McDonell is also president
of the California Police Chiefs Assn.

The U.S. Justice Department,
which controls the Immigration and Naturalization Service, says
it can't handle the 7-million immigrants currently in the U.S.
Therefore, it is considering a proposal to allow local police
to do their job for them. Austin police say that would undo the
trusting relationship local police have built with immigrants.
Police say illegal immigrants
often do not report crime, for fear they will be deported.

...Latino leaders objected,
saying police would unfairly target them because of their color,
national origin or language. The issue was so divisive that then
Salt Lake City Police Chief Ruben Ortega [in 1998] later withdrew
his bid for re-appointment, in part because of bitter criticism
from the Latino community. -- "No other metropolitan area
in the United States considered cross-deputization after Salt
Lake City voted it down," said John Dulles, regional director
of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in Denver. -- "A state
officer has no authority to determine who is in this country
legally or illegally,'' lawyer
Michael Martinez said.

FAIR
Issue
Brief

Immigration
Law Enforcement by Local AgenciesThe brief is an introductory summary of federal
law on the issue of local law enforcement agencies enforcing
federal immigration law provisions. Local officials who seek
guidance on this issue may contact FAIR's legal counsel for detailed
information. (4/5/02)

A U.S. Justice Department proposal
would put local police in the business of doing something they've
never done -- enforcing federal immigration laws. -- Larger agencies,
including the sheriff's offices in Orange and Seminole counties,
are eager to expand an immigration pilot program, which will
soon allow them to hold on immigration charges foreigners suspected
of having ties to terrorism. -- The proposal would permit agencies
to cast a much wider net, arresting any non-citizen who couldn't
prove legal residency status.

A U.S. Justice Department proposal
would put local police in the business of doing something they've
never done -- enforcing federal immigration laws. -- Larger agencies,
including the sheriff's offices in Orange and Seminole counties,
are eager to expand an immigration pilot program, which will
soon allow them to hold on immigration charges foreigners suspected
of having ties to terrorism. -- The proposal would permit agencies
to cast a much wider net, arresting any non-citizen who couldn't
prove legal residency status.

San Diego police representatives
and various human rights groups on Thursday rejected a U.S. Justice
Department initiative giving all police forces power to arrest
undocumented immigrants. -- Terming the move "inadequate,"
Americas Committee of Friendship Services (AFSC) President Christian
Ramirez underscored "the task of the police is to guarantee
public safety and not assume the duties of immigration officials."

Los
Angeles Times - April 5 In a post-Sept. 11 world, it seems
a most logical proposal: Why not let state and local police help
the obviously overwhelmed federal government find and deport
illegal immigrants?But the Justice Department idea floated
this week has already run into fierce opposition -- from immigrant
advocates and law enforcement agencies in California and elsewhere.The plan, still preliminary, could result
in greater leeway for state and local officers in enforcing immigration
laws. Yet many officers are definitively saying, "No
thanks." "We already have enough to do," said
Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department.
The same sentiments were echoed among police
officials in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

WASHINGTON --
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is considering changing a
Justice Department policy so state and local law officers can
arrest people solely for violating immigration laws.
In 1996, the department ruled that local officers
couldn't arrest people just for immigration violations unless
their departments exercised a provision of the 1996 immigration
law and signed an agreement with federal officials.
No department has signed such a pact, which
involves training and other conditions.
The policy change would eliminate the requirement
for the agreements.

A proposal by the U.S. Department
of Justice to authorize local and state police to enforce federal
immigration laws was roundly criticized Wednesday by law enforcement
and social-service agencies in San Joaquin County. -- Any attempt
to turn local police into an arm of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service could devastate community-policing efforts and leave
undocumented workers subject to greater victimization, officials
said.